One reason the Golden Knights are in their worst slump of the season is because they’re not breaking the glass in case of an emergency.
“We’re not putting out fires and limiting the damage,” coach Bruce Cassidy said.
“Putting out fires” is one of Cassidy’s pet phrases. It means slowing down the other team’s momentum once the Knights allow a goal. They were excellent at that earlier in the season. Not so much lately.
The Knights allowed an ember to grow into an inferno in the final four minutes of the first period in their 5-3 loss to the Chicago Blackhawks on Saturday at United Center. They let a 1-0 lead on the road turn into a 3-1 deficit.
The Knights doused the flames in the second period thanks to two goals from center Tomas Hertl, but Chicago pulled back ahead with a goal from defenseman Seth Jones 1:02 before the second intermission.
Cassidy’s group couldn’t rally a second time. That led to the Knights’ worst loss of the season, a setback against a Blackhawks team with the fewest points in the NHL. Chicago (15-28-3) entered Saturday on an 0-3-1 skid.
Now, the Knights (29-14-3) have lost three in a row and five of their last six. Their next chance to snap out of it comes against the St. Louis Blues (22-21-4) on Monday at T-Mobile Arena.
“You’re never going to be better than the other team for 60 straight minutes,” Cassidy said. “You better be able to put out some fires. How we do that is what we’ve got to attack here. At some point, until you start hating losing, that’s probably the first thing I’d start with.”
Hanging around
The Knights were outscored 13-8 during their three-game road trip. Two of the opponents they faced — the Blackhawks and the Nashville Predators — are well out of the playoff picture.
Each game, the Knights dug themselves a deep hole to climb out of.
They were down 4-0 against the Predators on Tuesday before losing 5-3. They gave up three straight goals after going ahead 1-0 in their 3-2 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes on Friday.
The Knights could have earned points in all three games if they just stopped the bleeding when they needed to.
“Even last game into this game (against Chicago), you see what makes you successful,” captain Mark Stone said Saturday. “I think we kind of gift-wrapped a few of their chances, a few of their goals. Back-to-back nights, we have the game where we want it, but we just make mistakes.”
The Knights felt good going into the third period Saturday despite Jones’ goal.
But left wing Tyler Bertuzzi increased the Blackhawks’ lead to 5-3 with a power-play goal 4:08 into the frame. Cassidy said that type of play, which involved Bertuzzi tapping the puck into the net from the back post, was highlighted in the Knights’ pregame film session Saturday morning.
“The times where they get a little momentum has cost us too much,” center William Karlsson said. “There’s periods where we play really good hockey, like the first 10 in the first and the second, too. When we break down, we let in goals. You’ve got to manage to survive that, and at the moment, we’re not.”
Into the fight
Stone said it’s not “super ideal” the Knights are slumping, but he believes the team’s issues are correctable. Cassidy, too, said none of the club’s losses — outside a 4-0 defeat to the New York Islanders on Jan. 9 — have been blowouts.
“The good thing is it’s nothing they’re doing. It’s preventable mistakes for us,” Stone said. “A little adversity is good this time of year, but it’s only good if you work your way out of it.”
The Knights don’t have much practice time to work out the kinks.
They follow up their home game against the Blues on Monday with back-to-back road games Thursday and Friday against St. Louis and the Dallas Stars, respectively.
It’s on the Knights to right the ship at some point. To show they can slow their opponents before games get away from them.
“I drag this team into the fight every fricking night when we’re not going well, so that’s my job,” Cassidy said. “At some point, that gets old for the players, that gets old for the coach. It becomes incumbent on them to make sure they bring the attitude that we’re going to get this going in the right direction, because we’re not that far off.”
Contact Danny Webster at dwebster@reviewjournal.com. Follow @DannyWebster21 on X.
